Cellar of Death

Something evil is devouring the souls of the living in Chult, but before the characters take on the horrors in Tomb of Annihilation, they must first uncover the death curse’s origin by braving a lich’s tower in the Cloakwood. This introductory adventure is designed for a party of four to six 1st-level characters, who should advance to 2nd level by the adventurer’s conclusion. It is a prelude to Tomb of Annihilation that should take about 2 to 3 hours.

What Inspired Cellar of Death?

The introduction of Tomb of Annihilation states Syndra Silvane learned about the Soulmonger from the Harpers, who “received their intelligence from a lich.” This adventure is the story of how the Harpers gathered that information.

Cellar of Death has a second purpose: to give characters a greater stake in the outcome of Tomb of Annihilation by creating an NPC they love. The death curse kills this NPC, giving the characters a personal reason to go to Chult.

What does "The shield on the wall is a shield of missile attraction that appears to be an arrow-catching shield." mean? Do the characters identify it as an arrow-catching shield if they study it during short rest?

How about with identify spell?

Darren OFebruary 15, 2018 4:16 pm UTC

PURCHASER

In case anyone was curious to see how this plays, my group plays entirely over text. I archived it into a website format. Obvious spoilers so don't look at this unless you're the DM!

http://darrenortiz.ca/misc/cellar-of-death/

Rob TFebruary 03, 2018 6:29 pm UTC

James, you should change the file format to "multiple" since it contains the FG mod as well. :)

Christopher FJanuary 24, 2018 2:02 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hi! The Fantasy Grounds Module doesn't have a treasure parcel for the Shield of Missile Attraction in map location Z10. I added it myself, but you might want to update the module. It's VERY easy to miss this if you're running it and relying on parcels!

Other than that, I'm tweaking this module for my CoS group that's starting out. Instead of the death curse, they're going in to find information on why this person is unable to be resurrected. It turns out her soul has been reborn in Ireena Kolyana. =)

Wesley SJanuary 20, 2018 10:39 pm UTC

PURCHASER

The map isn't loading for me for some reason. Is there any way to fix this?

Brittney HJanuary 17, 2018 6:03 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Is there a recommended min/max experience if I want to run this as an individual AL module?

Douglas BJanuary 05, 2018 6:43 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Nice work, running this adventure tonight for Adventurers League.

One quick note. The orientation of your map appears to be wrong. If one is traveling south from Baldur's Gate, the Cloakwood is to the East. The map has the cellar extending to the West, which would put it in the Sea of Swords, rather than beneath the Cloakwood.

Minor detail, but I'm a map junkie, and noticed it right off.

Ian MJanuary 28, 2018 2:12 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I think the entrance into the tower is actually on the southeast corner of the tower, though -- Callbrax pulls the keelboat onto the shore then hops into the water, so I think that solves that particular problem.

Simon CDecember 19, 2017 2:49 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I have just purchased this mod and I was wondering if there is any guidance on scaling for higher difficulty levels available from peoples personal experience.

Chris VNovember 27, 2017 6:11 pm UTC

PURCHASER

How do i get the mod into fantasy grounds ?

Chris VNovember 27, 2017 6:33 pm UTC

PURCHASER

alright my apologies for a little bit of research and I figured it out myself.

Quick additional map I made for Part 4 https://i.redd.it/7vmf2b6sdgtz.jpg

James IOctober 23, 2017 2:41 pm UTC

CREATOR

Love this!!!

October 19, 2017 1:06 am UTC

PURCHASER

Just to clarify - in AL, is this is locked to level 1 PC's only? in AL guidance for hardcovers there's a phrase that says higher levels can participate, as long as it matches the level guidance. This says "designed for level 1 characters" versus the APL language of 1st level. I say this because plussing up the encounters for a tier 1 level 1-4 party isn't super hard, but it changes the difficulty of the final fight if players have magic.

Rowan MOctober 13, 2017 9:40 am UTC

PURCHASER

With "Cursed blood", in area Z6 how long does the imposed disadvantage last? An hour? Until they are not touching the floor? Until they are not touching the blood? Until they leave the room? The rest of the adventure?

James IOctober 13, 2017 11:35 am UTC

CREATOR

Just until they are no longer touching the blood. I'll clear that up in the next update. Thanks!

Rowan MOctober 14, 2017 5:34 am UTC

PURCHASER

Thanks! Looking forward to running this! ^^

Jasmine LOctober 12, 2017 11:55 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Would it be possible to add bookmarks to the PDF?

Jeffrey MOctober 09, 2017 6:33 pm UTC

PURCHASER

"If the characters run, Zaldara does not use her lair actions until the second round of combat"

My group really enjoyed this adventure. The NPC characters had just enough depth to support a compelling story that pulled the PCs in. The dungeon map is excellent and the mob placement and challenging trap locations created exciting and fast-paced gam [...]

Wonderful product. I was afraid that the players creating an PC and then immediately killing her off would be transparent, but my players (who are quite experienced) ate it up. They created a motherly female dwarf who ran an inn in Baldur's Gate. The [...]

This is a really great module, a much better presented hook to get characters involved in ToA than in the hardcover itself. In particular, I like the fact that it's designed to make low-level characters the heroes. They're performing the importa [...]

Decided to run this adventure as my first one as a DM and for 5 of my coworkers who have never played before. The way this adventure is written made it extremely easy to follow and gave enough information that even when they tried to attempt something [...]

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